Mirror, mirror on the wall which is the best camera of them all?
Well that mirror on the wall might just soon be the last mirror left
because mirrorless cameras are giving dslr cameras a good run for their money.
...... or are they? Stick around to find out what the hype
around mirrorless cameras is about as I explain the difference between a
dslr and a mirrorless camera and then also the advantages of shooting
mirrorless - specifically for wildlife photography.
Yes mirrorless cameras have been around for quite some time now but recently
we've been getting a lot of questions regarding the mirrorless system and
whether it's worth trading in your DSLR for a mirrorless camera
Also there's been a lot of new
mirrorless cameras coming out and new firmware updates etc.
So it's worth making a video about mirrorless cameras.
I have been lucky enough to be able to borrow this z6 from Nikon
and I'm testing it out at Jaci's Lodges in Madikwe game reserve in the
North West province of South Africa.
Keep an eye out for future videos where I'll be talking about what I love
about the Z6 but for now, I'm talking about mirrorless cameras in general.
So what is the difference between a DSLR and a mirrorless camera?
In a DSLR light comes in through the lens hits a mirror
and then it's reflected up into a penta prism into the viewfinder
and towards your eye. A little bit of light is also deflected towards an
autofocus sensor in a dslr camera.
In a mirrorless camera on the other hand light comes in through the lens.
It has no mirror. So the light passes through the lens straight to the sensor
where the image is recorded as well as the autofocus calculation takes place.
Why is this important?
Well there are quite a few advantages that
result from having no mirror in a camera and as we know, technology changes daily
but at the moment for me these are five general advantages of
shooting mirrorless in wildlife photography.
Number one. The weight and the size of the camera.
I've purposely left off the lens of this camera so you can see exactly how small
this camera is and it's extremely light and compact and
that is because there's no mirror that has to fit
into the camera body. So if you travel a lot it's a great advantage.
If you struggle to lift heavy gear it's a great advantage.
It is really compact and tiny and light so that's a big advantage of shooting mirrorless.
Number two. A real-time live preview.
So with mirrorless what you see is what you get and what that means is
you see exactly the photograph that you are about to take before you even
press the shutter release button because your image is recording
directly onto the sensor. So if you make any changes to your shutter speed, your
aperture, even your iso you can see that on the
photograph preview before you press the button.
This to me is an amazing advantage especially when you are learning
photography because you know exactly what the
setting change that you are doing is going to do to your photograph and
that way you can learn much faster. Especially when you want to
shoot on manual mode for example. I love seeing the shot and the quality
and exposure exactly what it will be like before i
actually press the shutter button. So that to me
is a great advantage of shooting mirrorless.
Number three. More autofocus points.
Because of the different autofocus system
in a mirrorless camera 90% of your frame is covered in autofocus points unlike a
DSLR where your focus points are mostly centered
around the middle of the frame. That means that shots like these
are much easier to get. There's no need to focus and recompose. You can put your
subject right on the edge of your frame and
focus using an actual focus point in a mirrorless camera.
The fourth advantage is the frame rate. Now this is a big generalization especially
when we start comparing it to the higher end DSLRs
but because of the more basic mechanics in a mirrorless camera
you're able to shoot at a higher frames per second
and that's a great advantage because in wildlife we always want to shoot as fast
as possible.
The fifth advantage is no blackouts between shots.
So what does this mean this means
that when you're tracking a subject with a DSLR camera
and you're shooting at a high frame rate the mirror flips up and down the whole
time which means you don't always get to see the image
which is reflected into your eye by the mirror. Because when the mirror flips up
the light hits the sensor and you have no preview. You have no view through the
viewfinder of what you're shooting. So when you're tracking a subject and
you're shooting at a high frame rate you often lose the subject because
there's blackouts as the mirror flips up and down.
That's no problem with a mirrorless camera. So you can constantly follow your
subject while you're looking through the electronic viewfinder
and you can follow it through keeping your focus point on the subject
that is a great advantage in wildlife photography specifically
and it's one of the things that i really love about mirrorless cameras.
Those are my five advantages of shooting mirrorless for wildlife photography
there are plenty more and i'd love to hear your favorites so please leave them
in the comments below.
As with anything, there are disadvantages as well and it's
good to be aware of the disadvantages when you shoot mirrorless.
Firstly battery life. The battery just doesn't last as long for as many shots
in a mirrorless camera as it does in a DSLR at the moment.
I'm sure it'll change but at the moment you get much fewer shots
than you do from a DSLR.
Secondly the electronic viewfinder.
Some people really are irritated by the lag in the
electronic viewfinder because you're shooting on live view
basically and that means that there's still, for now,
a little bit of a lag on some mirrorless cameras. It takes some getting used to
and it's quite easy to get used to in my opinion but it is something to keep in mind.
Then a debatable point is the autofocus.
It used to be that mirrorless cameras had a slower autofocus when it comes to
tracking moving subjects. That is drastically changing with each
upgrade and with each firmware update. So test out the camera that you want to
buy - the mirrorless camera. See if it can track as quickly as you wanted to track
for the subjects that you want to track in wildlife photography. That's the best
way to know if it's fast enough for your needs.
Then lastly lenses. Unfortunately at the moment there's not such a wide range
of dedicated lenses for mirrorless camera systems.
But, that is constantly changing. Luckily in this camera specifically, you can buy
an adapter (FTZ adapter) and you can put most of the lenses that
you can use on DSLR cameras on the mirrorless bodies.
You can Google it. There's a whole list of compatible and non-compatible lenses
and with the FTZ adapter but I can almost assure you that the lenses that
you're shooting with at the moment on your DSLR
will definitely be able to be used on this mirrorless camera.
That is mirrorless in a nutshell. I Ihope you enjoyed that
and I'll see you in the next videos. Until then. Bye.